After the big push to staff and supply your salon, you may not have much left over to actually decorate the place. While you want your business of beauty to be welcoming and enjoyable for your patrons, it’s not required to go broke furnishing it. In fact, there may be more ways to furnish frugally than you think. Find what best suits your salon and see how “pretty” the savings can be.

Shabby Sense

Instead of letting the cold, hard steel of dryer head vents and sinks dominate your salon's look, create a cozy and sweet atmosphere that really makes “cents.” Turn to the ways of shabby chic for your furnishings and you’ll have a décor that both tempts customers to settle in and stay for a while and won’t leave you too broke to afford shampoo and conditioner. The shabby chic furnishing style involves choosing items that convey a well-worn and comfortable feel. This means you can mine your own and your stylists’ homes for extra items. Shabby chic furnishing doesn’t have to match; in fact, having a couple of different patterned or colored soft chairs in your salon waiting area is much more the shabby chic style. This also works for decorations for around the stylists’ workstations, where each stylist can contribute decorations. Make sure everything you accept as contributions is clean and stain-free, with a generous spray of fabric refresher as needed.

Better in Bulk

Some items you buy to furnish the salon may keep reappearing on your shopping list, such as candles, incense sticks, decorated face towels and baskets. Save yourself both money and shopping effort by buying these items in bulk. While the initial outlay may seem like a shock to your bottom line, buying in bulk may have a frugal effect down the line, since the cost-per-piece on bulk buying is usually much less. Talk to your vendors to inquire about wholesale prices on decorative items and see how frugal you can get with one up-front cost.

Try Trading

To deck out your salon with the best available local furnishings, consider implementing a bartering system. This works best with individuals, not mass merchandisers who have set selling procedures. If one of your customers is or knows a local artist, try out a trade. Offer a free cut, color, massage or gift package in exchange for a few pieces to deck your walls. You can also barter for services such as painting walls, laying tile, rug installation, mirror framing and décor crafts such as dried flower arrangements and candle baskets. Your only costs are the stylist’s time and products/equipment used.

Be Late

Late salon customers can really back up a stylist’s schedule, and stylists who are late may cause outrage in your lobby, but there’s one way that being late can really help your finances. After a major holiday, watch department and mass merchandise stores start dropping their prices on decorative items. Stores usually start out between 30 to 50 percent off the next day, but may drop throughout the week to 75 to 90 percent off just to make room for their next items. You can score salon furnishings that don’t scream holiday theme party by just keeping an eagle eye out. For example, scoop up candles and essential oils to burn in the waiting area after Valentine’s Day, or try after-Christmas sales for cute salon-related ornaments you can hang all year. Changing seasons also give you a chance to save – right before fall, you can score summer fabric and plastic chairs and tables at a fraction of the retail price.

About the Author

Fionia LeChat is a technical writer whose major skill sets include the MS Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher), Photoshop, Paint, desktop publishing, design and graphics. LeChat has a Master of Science in technical writing, a Master of Arts in public relations and communications and a Bachelor of Arts in writing/English.